Mount Eerie premieres new single “This” and video — watch

Share this:

On February 3rd, singer-songwriter Phil Elverum will release Sauna, his latest album under the Mount Eerie moniker. Already we’ve heard a stripped-down version of LP track “Dragon”. Now, he’s let loose a new ballad called “This”.

Peppered with feathery harmonies and low-humming organ, the track is inspired by the power of imagination. “‘This’ is about reading a book about another time and place– the medieval North Sea, for example,” Elverum says. “And becoming totally transported by the torrent of abstract associations and images, ‘traveling mentally wild.’ And then coming back to the present moment, the ‘this’ of the title.”

Taking a cue from the track itself, the corresponding video is similarly vague and dream-like. Directed by Peter J. Brant, it follows a young boy who is reading a book on Scandinavian mythology.

“The song and the video are seemingly surreal and ambiguous, but actually it is an attempt at a straight-up accurate depiction of this every-moment mental experience,” Elverum noted. “An orange traffic cone in a weird place, a pumpkin smashed on the rocks, a sword in the sky; all mental images piercing through layers of dream, all aiming for some kind of lucidity.” Watch it below.